Venom: Marvel Cash Cow

Matt Tuck

Feb 12, 2018

I’ve written about it before, but Marvel has its “cash cow” for every decade.

In the 1960s, it was the Fantastic Four, specifically the Human Torch and the Thing. By the 1970s, that transitioned to Spider-Man. In the 1980s and into the 1990s, it was the X-Men, particularly Wolverine. The modern age has seen Deadpool take the title, but lately it appears that Venom has been christened the current Marvel cash cow.

Venom has been popping up in all sorts of titles for the past 20 years, so this isn’t exactly current news. However, ever since Marvel gave the symbiote back to the original Venom, Eddie Brock, the first symbiote has been all over the place. Just last year, there were four new Venom titles on the market: the self-titled Venom, Venomverse, Edge of Venomverse, and Venom: War Stories. This year, Marvel has rolled out another title, Venom Inc.

With this inundation of all-things Venom, let’s examine the profitability of some of the Venom titles.

Not surprisingly, it’s the Gabriele Dell’Otto variant covers that are bringing in the real money for these titles. While only two CGC 9.8 Alpha copies have sold this year, they each brought high values; one sold for $305 in January and another went for $287. This is due to these being 1:50 variants. What does that mean? It’s a ratio variant and for every 50 Venom Inc. Alphas the store ordered, that store received one copy of the variant. The higher the ratio, the more valuable the comic.

Like every other comic these days, Venom Inc. Alpha had multiple variant covers. Aside from the Dell’Otto, the Adi Granov variant is doing well. The graded 9.8s are routinely selling for over $100, and one sold for a high of $129 earlier this month. It’s a cheaper option for those collectors looking for a cool Venom variant but not willing to fork over $300 for the Dell’Otto.

There have yet to be any recorded graded sales for Venom Inc. Omega, but the raw copies are listing for around $200, which is about the same as Alpha. My guess is that when the graded sales begin, those will sell for about the same prices as their predecessor.

The story didn’t offer anything spectacular, but this is still a key issue for Venom collectors as it marked the first self-titled Venom series. These days, with all the fervor for the Venom movie, it’s seeing a spike in value.

The 90-day average selling price for all grades of Lethal Protector #1 is going up. If you’re lucky enough to have the rare gold foil edition, now would be a good time to cash in. A CGC 9.0 gold cover averaged $84 last year. At the moment, it’s jumped to $238 over the past three months. The regular red foil cover is seeing an increase, too, but it’s more modest selling price is currently $41.

Let’s not forget that there were six issues in the limited Lethal Protector series. Issue #2 at a 9.0 sells in the $30 range, and the price gradually decreases for the other four issues. However, it’s still a good idea to round up the entire set, and you can get these at a reasonable price.

Finally, we come to Venomverse #1, which had a grand total of 15 variant covers. That seems like a bit of overkill, but at least some of them were pretty cool; my particular favorite is the Francesco Mattina variant.

I’m not going to bog down this article with stats for all 15 variants. Instead, let’s look at some of the more valuable variants in the set.

At the top of the heap is the Mattina variant I mentioned. A 9.8 virgin edition has been selling for around $100, and you can find many of those signed as well. The trade dress edition is bringing almost half of that price as it averages $56.

Another one you will want to be on the lookout for is the Scorpion Comics editions that were printed exclusively for New York Comic Con. As all good variants do, this one came in the trade dress and virgin covers. A 9.8 virgin edition will cost you around $75 if you want it graded. However, there are plenty of raw copies that are selling for much less, so if you don’t have yours for the collection, it isn’t hard to find at a decent price.

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